Monday, August 23, 2010

Deep Fried Ice-cream

I have had deep fried ice-cream at a restaurant on only 2 occasions. The first time was at a sushi restaurant, the ice-cream was rolled in cake then fried in tempura batter. The fried ice-cream was then hidden under a mountain of multi-coloured whipped cream, it was fun but didn’t really live up to expectations.

The second occasion was at the end of the most amazing Thai banquet, sadly the ice-cream wasn’t fried at all, just rolled in toasted coconut.

I was having Dad over for dinner and these were the perfect dessert to go with a green Thai curry. The mix of breadcrumbs and coconut made for a tasty, crispy outside that cracked nicely open to reveal the soft ice-cream surprise inside. They were everything I hoped for.

To make the ice-cream balls- firstly make sure everything is super cold. Place a tray in the freezer to chill before starting and make sure ice-cream is hard frozen.

Scoop the ice-cream into balls using an ice-cream scoop, place the balls onto the chilled tray and return to the freezer until hard.

Working fast to ensure the ice-cream doesn’t soften too much, lightly coat the balls in flour, dip in the combined egg and milk, then coat firmly with the mixed coconut and breadcrumbs. Place the coated ice-cream back in the freezer to harden.

When the ice-cream is hard repeat the coating process, to give a firm shell. Freeze the ice-cream balls until ready to serve.

To fry the ice-cream, place the balls one at a time, into deep hot oil. Fry the balls for about 30 seconds, until golden brown, remove from oil with a slotted spoon. Absorb any excess oil with paper towel.

Serve the ice-cream immediately with warm caramel sauce.

Caramel sauce

30 grams butter¼ cup brown sugar100 mls cream

To make the caramel sauce- melt the butter and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. Gradually add the cream and stir until well combined, remove from the heat. Serve warm over ice-cream.

wow, this looks really great! I love the coconut idea to make it nice and crispy. when i worked at a Japanese restaurant, they would wrap the ice cream in slices of pound cake instead of using tempura batter.